Science 1920-12-03: Vol 52

New SERIES
Vou. LII, No. 1353 Fripay, DeceMBER 3, 1920

Pe
A NEW wore
“se ha

Rivas’ Human Pa_ “atology

This is the first work on this subject by an Ame % thor. An im-
portant and practical feature of the book is the ir. _otes on bac-
teriology, mycology, laboratory diagnosis, hematc # AS d serology.
Emphasis is given throughout to parasitic diseases al. 4% »otency as
predisposing factors to secondary bacterial infection. ig cussion is
complete, beginning with the history of parasitology ana © «ig up proto-
zoan parasites; metazoan parasites; vegetable parasites \ fungi) ; macro-

scopy and microscopy. The text is very fully illustrated.

By DAMASO RIVAS, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Parasitology and Assistant
Director of the course in Tropical Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Octavo of
715 pages, with 445 illustrations, some in colors. Cloth, $8.00 net.

eS

Prentiss and Arey’s Embryology NEW (3rd) EDITION

This edition has been given a thorough and careful revision, adding every
new advancement. It deals particularly with the chick and pig embryos
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human embryo and giving you a concise systematic account of human
embryology. A large number of original dissections are described and

illustrated.

Large octavo of 411 pages,

with 388 illustrations. By CHARLES W. PRENTISS,
Ph.D., formerly Professor of Microscopic Anatomy, and LESLIE B. AREY, Ph.D.,

Associate Professor of Anatomy, Northwestern University. Cloth, $4.00 net.
: 9 ° . SEVENTH
Mallory and Wright’s Pathologic Technic st tes

This work gives the technic of bacteriologic methods, bacteriology of
various diseases, histologic methods, the special methods, the special
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of bacterial vaccines.

Octavo of 555 pages, with 181 illustrations. By FRANK BURR MALLORY, M_D.,
Pathologist to the Boston City Hospital; and JAMES HOMER WRIGHT, M.D.,
Pathologist to the Massachusetts General Hospital. Cloth, $4.00 net.

McJunkin’s Clinical Microscopy and Chemistry

This work is really a clinical pathology, omitting no step from obtaining
the pathological material to interpretation of the findings. It isa book on
the use of the microscopic and chemical analysis in the diagnosis of

disease.
Octavo of 470 pages, illustrated. By F. A. McJUNKIN, M.D., Professor of Pathology
at Marquette University School of Medicine. Cloth, $4.00 net.

W. B. SAUNDERS COMPANY Philadelphia and London

SINGLE Coptigs, 15 Crs.
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il SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
You’ve Been Waiting for Such a Book

PUBLIC HEALTH AND HYGIEN

Edited by WILLIAM HALLOCK PARK, MLD.

Professor of Bacteriology and Hygiene, University and Bellevue Hospital, Medical College; Diree-
tor of the Bureau of Laboratories, Department of Health, New York City.

Octovo, 884 pages with 123 illustrations. Cloth $10.00 net

A remarkable advance has taken place, in the past few years, in the appreciation of the people
and of their officials in regard to the value of public health. This growing opinion that public
health is to a large extent purchasable by effort and money, has stimulated health authorities to
develop their opportunities and to assume greater responsibilities. The best medical colleges no
longer confine their teaching almost wholly to subjects dealing with the diagnosis and treatment
of disease, but give thorough courses in hygiene, and its practical application in preventive medi-
cine. The technological schools are providing similar courses to students thinking of entering the

By Eminent
Authorities

field of public health work.

The great advances in our knowledge concerning hygiene and the increasing scope of public
health work have led to the creation of many subdivisions and the problems and practices con-
nected with these have become so highly technical as to require public health workers to restrict

their activities to special lines.

The medical officer for some time has appreciated this.

Wher-

ever the community is large enough to afford it, he has obtained the service of specialists. The
department of health of any progressive State or large city has under the administrative head a
number of bureaus, each of these under some Specialist who has demonstrated his fitness.

The time has passed when any One person cnn possess the technical knowledge and personal
experience required properly to direct and develop all or even several of these different branches

of public health work.

ihan one or two of these subjects.

It is also true that few if any persons can discuss authoritatively more
The report cf the American Public Health Association on the

control of communicable diseases was consulted in writing the chapter on that subject.

There was need of a volume in which the most important phases of hygiene in relation to
public health would be presented in a practical way by specialists actually devoting themselves
This book is intended for public health officials, physicians and
medical students, and each contributor has therefore made his section as practical as possible
and utilized to the full his own personal experience.

to the subjects treated by them.

CONTENTS

Relation of Microorganisms to
Disease, Wm H. Park, M.D.
Antimicrobal or Antiprotein
Substances Individually
Considered, Wm. H. Park, M.
D.. and Charles Krumwiede,
M.D.. Assistant Director of
the Bureau of Laboratories,

New York City.

Prevention of Individual In-
fectious Diseases, Wm. H.
Park, M.D.

Practical Use of Disinfectants,
Wm. H. Park. M.D.

Enidemiology, Geo. A. Soper,
Ph.D., Major, Sanitary Corps,
DD. S&S. ms

Sanitary Surveys, W. L. Dodd,
Assistant Director, Denpart-
ment of Sanitation of the
Pease Laboratories, N. Y.

Air and Health—Ventilation,
Cc. E. A. Winslow. Dr. P. H.,
Professor of Public Health,
Yale School of Medicine

Housing, Lawrence Veiller.
Secretary of the National
Housing Association, N. Y.

Food, Edw. K. Dunnam, M_D.,
Lt. Colonel, Medical Corps,
U. S. A.

Vitamines, Alfred F. Hess, M.D.,
Clinical Professor of Pedi-
atrics, New York University
and Bellevue Hospital Medi-
cal College.

The Preservation and Adulter-
ation of Food. J. P. Atkin-
son, M.S., Chief Chemist, De-
partment of Health. N. Y.

Bacterial and Other Contami-
nations of Milk. Their Rela-
tion to Public Health, Wm.
H. Park, M.D.

Bacterial Infections and Para-
sitic Diseases from Milk
Meat and Other Foods, Wm.
H. Park, M.D.

The Soil, Arthur R. Guerard,
M.D Lecturer on Social
Hygiene, New York State
Department of Health.

Water Supplies and Their
Purification. James T-B.
Bowles, B.S., Lecturer in
Water Supply and Sewage
Disposal. New York TUni-
versity, Department of Hy-
giene, Bellevue Hospital
Medical College; formerly in
charge of Water Supplies
and Purification Plants,
Canal Zone, Panama.

Sewage and Waste Disnosal,
James T-B. Bowles, B.S.

Housing and Plumbing, Ar-
thur R. Guerard, M.D.

The Sanitation of Swimming
Pools, Wallace A. Man-
heimer, Ph.D.. Vice-Presi-
dent of the International
Congress on Public Baths,
Belgium, 1920.

Personal Hygiene. FEugcene
Lyman Fisk, M.D.. Medical
Director of the Life Exten-
sion Institute, New York.

Additional Practical Points in
Personal Hygiene, Arthur R.
Guerard. M.D.

Military Hyziene, C. W. Berry.
M.D.. Lecturer on Military
Hygiene. New York TUniver-
sity and Bellevue Medical
College: Brigadier-General,
N. Y. National Guard.

Rural Public Health Work,
Frank Overton. M.D., P.H..
Sc.C. Sanitary Supervisor N.
Y. State Dept. of Health.

Tropical Hygiene, M. E. Con-
nor, M.D., Health Officer,
Panama Canal, 1904-1914;
Senior State Director. Inter-
national Health Board.

Industrial Hygiene, Louis I.
Harris, M.D., Director of
Bureau of Preventable Dis-
eases, N. Y. City; Medical
Advisor to the Labor Sanita-
tion Conference, Greater
New York.

Child Hygiene, S. Josephine
Baker, M.D., D.P.H., Direc-
tor of Bureau of Child Hy-
gziene, Department of Heolth,
New York: Consultant in
Child Hygiene, U. S. Public
Health Service.

Sociologic and Economic As-
pects of Disease. Charles F.
Bolduan, M.D.. Chief of the

Section of Public Health
Education, U. 8S. Public
Health Service.

Public Health Education,

Charles F. Bolduan, M.D.

Mental Hygiene. August Hoch,
M.D.. late Director. Psy-
chiatric Institute, Manhat-
tan State Hospital for the
Insane, New York.

Mental Defectives, Preventing
and Controlling Measures,
Henry H. Goddard, Ph.D.,
Director of Bureau of Juve-
nile Research, Columbus, O.

Maritime Quarantine, Leland
E. Cofer. M.D., Health Officer
of the Port of New York.

Vital Statistics, William H.
Guilfoy, M.D., Registrar of
Records, Department of
Health, New York, and Shir-
ley W. Wynne, M.D., Chief
of Division of Statistical
Research, Department of
Health, New York.

SEND FOR IT NOW

706-10 Sansom St.

LEA & FEBIGER

Send me Park’s Public Health and Hygiene for enclosed $10.00

Address...

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SCIENCE

a

|

Fray, DecemBer 3, 1920

CONTENTS

Some Features of the Chicago Meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement
of Science and of the Associated Societies:
PROFESSOR BuRTON E. LIVINGSTON ........ 521

A More Nearly Rational System of Units: Dr.
BE I i binds crc cn bc acer yen bad 525

Paleontology and Pragmatism: Epwarp W.
es iGo ba Sb eokbbine «6c onles.s oc 529

Scientific Events :—
A New Observatory in Cleveland; A Survey
of Forest Research; A Score for Health Ac-
tivities; Council Meeting of the Illinois
Academy of Science; The Engineering Foun-

re vdln BW ala dif ot 8.6 dee o Pha Be we 531
Scientific Notes and News ................. 535
University and Educational News ........... 537

Discussion and Correspondence :—
Recent Lake Shores of the Cretaceous: Dr.
G. R. WIELAND. Is Honey a Luzury? M.C.
Tanquary. The Flight of Fireflies and the
Flashing Impulse: H. A. ALLARD ......... 537

Special Articles :—
Fungicidal Dusts for Control of Smuts: W.
W. Mackiz, Frep N. Briggs ............. 540

The American Astronomical Society: Dr. JOEL
i a ek eo sob se bdeee 4 oats 541

MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.

SOME FEATURES OF THE CHICAGO
MEETING OF THE AMERICAN AS-
SOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE-—
MENT OF SCIENCE AND OF THE
ASSOCIATED SOCIETIES,
DECEMBER 27, 1920,
TO JANUARY rf, 1921

Tue Chicago meeting will be the seventy-
third meeting of the association. It will be
one of the larger and more comprehensive
meetings, which are scheduled to be held
every fourth year. It promises to be a
greater meeting than any earlier one. Every
American interested in science or education
should attend if possible and should do all
in his power to insure the success of the
meeting for every branch of scientific and
educational work.

Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief of the Bureau of
Entomology, of the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture, is president-elect and
will preside at the Chicago meeting. He has
been permanent secretary of the association
for twenty-two years, during which the mem-
bership of the organization has increased
from 1,729 to nearly 12,000. The meetings
held during his secretaryship have been in-
creasingly successful and influential.

The address of the retiring president, to be
given at the opening general session on the
evening of December 27, will be by Dr. Simon
Flexner, Director of the Rockefeller Institute
for Medical Research.

There will be two other general sessions at
the Chicago meeting planned to be of interest
not only to all scientific workers and all mem-
bers of the association but also to the general
public. One of these general-interest sessions
will be devoted to an illustrated lecture on
High-Power Fluorescence and Phosphores-
cence, by Professor Robert W. Wood, of the
physics department of the Johns Hopkins
University. The other of these sessions will

522

be devoted to an illustrated lecture on The
Voleaniec Region of Katmai, Alaska, by Dr.
Robert E. Griggs, of the Katmai Expeditions,
National Geographic Society.

Thirty-seven associated societies, many of
which are affiliated with the association, will
meet with it at Chicago, and their sessions
will generally be open to members of the asso-
ciation and the public. The retiring presi-
dents of many of these societies will read
presidential addresses. Also, each of the sec-
tions of the association, representing different
fields of science, will hold its annual session,
and the retiring vice-presidents for the sec-
tions will each present an address on some
broad aspect of his own field. Also, many
invitation papers will be read before the
sections.

The geographical location of Chicago as-
sures a large attendance and an exceptionally
good representation of all branches of scien-
tifie endeavor. There have been two meetings
of the American Association held at Chicago,
one in August, 1868 (with an attendance of
259 and a total membership of 686), and the
other at the end of 1907 (with an attendance
of 725 and a total membership of 5,114).

For the advancement of science, for the
progress of real education, and for the in-
crease of knowledge and of the appreciation
of knowledge—which is wisdom—among the
people of America, it is especially desirable
that this Chicago meeting should be well
attended. This meeting will be the first of
the larger four-year meetings since the close
of the recent war and it will be the most
centrally located of the four-year meetings
for the next twelve years.1. The war resulted
in an increased appreciation of scientific and
educational endeavor and it is of prime im-
portance for the immediate future of Amer-
ican civilization that public interest in the
work of the association be encouraged in all
possible ways and with the least possible delay.
A large and enthusiastic meeting of the asso-
ciation and of the societies associated with it

1 The 1924-25 meeting will occur at Washington
and that for 1928-29 will occur at New York; the
1932-33 meeting will be again at Chicago.

SCIENCE

[N. 8S. Vou. LIT. No, 1353

will aid much in this direction, especially at
the present time and at such a favorable loca-
tion as Chicago.

It is therefore hoped that each member of
the association and of the associated societies
will make special effort to be present at
Chicago, considering the matter not only from
the ordinary personal standpoint but also
with respect to its broader aspects that bear
upon the most important features of the pub-
lic welfare. To the individual, the question
as to whether or not he will decide to attend
the Chicago meeting is not only one regard-
ing the assured benefit he will personally re-
ceive by attending; it also involves even the
more important question of how much his
presence would aid in making the meeting a
success and in thus furthering the growth of
well-founded civilization.

The local committee for the Chicago meet-
ing has arranged for the association head-
quarters to be at the Congress Hotel and has
cooperated with the secretaries of associated
societies planning to meet with the associa-
tion, so that headquarters hotels have been
designated for these societies. Information
regarding seventeen Chicago hotels is given
in the announcement. The registration room
(in the Reynolds Club, the University of
Chicago, 57th St. and University Ave.) will
be in telephonic connection with the hotels.
Information regarding these, and also about
other hotels and rooms in the vicinity of the
university, may be had at the information
desk in the registration room.

The general sessions of the association, and
the sessions of the various sections and asso-
ciated societies, will occur mainly in the
buildings of the University of Chicago, under
the auspices of which this meeting is to be
held. Specific information regarding the
meeting-places of the sections and societies
will be given in the General program of the
meeting, which will be available on the morn-
ing of December 27. Guide-signs and pla-
eards will be in evidence where needed, and
inquiries may be made at the information desk
in the registration room. The three general
sessions of the association (evenings of

DECEMBER 3, 1920]

December 27, 28 and 29) will be held in
Mandel Hall, entrance under the Tower, on
57th St. just west of University Ave.

There will be three general sessions of the
association at Chicago, as follows:

1. Monday, December 27, 8 p.m., Mandel
Hall, the University of Chicago. Opening
addresses, followed by the address of the re-
tiring president of the association, Dr. Simon
Flexner, director of the laboratories of the
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research,
New York City. Dr. Flexner will speak on
“ Twenty-five years of bacteriological re-
search. A fragment of medical science.”
The presentation of Dr. Flexner’s address will
be followed by a general reception, to which
are invited all members and friends of the
American Association and of the associated
societies, and all persons interested in science
and education.

2. Tuesday, December 28, 8:15 p.m., Mandel
Hall. Dr. Robert W. Wood, professor of
physics in the Johns Hopkins University, will
give a lecture, with demonstrations, on “ High
power phosphorescence and _ fluorescence.”
This lecture will involve recent important
developments in the physics of light, pre-
sented in such a way as to be readily under-
stood by every one. The experimental demon-
strations will be especially interesting.

3. Wednesday, December 29, 8:15 P.M.,
Mandel Hall. Dr. Robert E. Griggs, of the
Katmai Expeditions, National Geographical
Society, will give an illustrated lecture on
“The voleanic region of Katmai, Alaska.”
The illustrations will be by stereopticon slides
and motion pictures and will be of fascinating
interest.

The Wild-Flower Preservation Society will
hold a reception to visiting scientists on Tues-
day, December 28, at 8 p.M., in the Chicago Art
Institute (Michigan Avenue near the Van
Buren Street station of the Illinois Central
Railway). Visitors will have opportunity to
inspect an exhibit of flower portraits, special
preparations, ete., which will then be installed
in the Art Institute. Mrs. Charles L. Hutchin-
son is president of the society and Mrs.
Charles Scribner Eaton is secretary.

SCIENCE

523

The session programs of the associated so-
cieties and of the sections of the association
(these programs being in the hands of the so-
ciety and section secretaries) will be an-
nounced in the general program of the meet-
ing, which will be available at the registration
room (Reynolds Club, University Avenue and
57th Street) at 9 a.m. on Monday, December
27. Members of the association not attending
the meeting, who desire to receive copies of
the general program, will be supplied from the
permanent secretary's Washington office after
January 5, 1921 (as long as copies are avail-
able), if they make this request in a letter to
the permanent secretary. The session pro-
grams, together with abstracts of papers, will
be published in Sctence, the official publica-
tion of the association, during the early part
of the new year.

Many joint meetings, dinners, smokers, etc.,
will be held at Chicago during the meeting,
by the several associated societies and the sec-
tions of the association. These will be an-
nounced in the general program.

One of the important features of the asso-
ciation meetings has long been the oppor-
tunity offered for personal contacts among
scientific and educational workers and their
friends, but it is frequently somewhat difficult
for one to find out whether a certain person is
present or not and where he is staying if pres-
ent. An attempt will be made at the Chicago
meeting to remove the difficulty just men-
tioned, by maintaining a continuously cor-
rected directory of all registrants. This di-
rectory will be conveniently placed in the
registration room and may be readily consulted .
at any time. It will consist of a series of
slips posted in a suitable place, arranged in a
single alphabet by surnames. Each slip will
show the name of the registrant, his home ad-
dress and the name of the hotel, etc., where he
is stopping for the meeting. Only a few min-
utes will elapse between the presentation of
the registration card at the desk and the ap-
pearance of the corresponding slip in the
visible directory. It is hoped that this ar-
rangement will prove a source of satisfaction
to those in attendance.

524

By a statement in the By-Laws of the asso-
ciation (Art. X., Sec. 1), “only members who
have paid their dues shall enjoy the privileges
of the meetings.” The three general sessions
will be the only occasions for any restriction
of admission at the Chicago meeting. Mem-
bers in good standing and associates for the
meeting will enjoy all the privileges, includ-
ing the general sessions. As set forth in the
preceding section of this announcement, reg-
istered members and associates are to have the
privilege of introducing guests for the general
sessions. Members of associated societies who
are not members or associates of the associa-
tion are guests of the association for the three
general sessions, but they do not have the
privilege of introducing guests.

Students actually in attendance at the Uni-
versity of Chicago are to be guests of the
association, in the same way as are members of
associated societies. Others may receive the
privilege of the general sessions by applying
in the registration room, but it is hoped that
the cooperative nature of the association will
lead most persons of this group to become
either members or associates. It is to be re-
membered that the work of the association re-
quires funds and that the only available source
of funds for this work is the dues paid by
members and associates. The association does
not wish to restrict the benefits of its meetings,
but it must emphasize the fact that these are
possible only through the loyal cooperative
support of those who are interested in scien-
tific advance and in the spread of knowledge.

Delegates to the Chicago meeting from sci-
entific and educational institutions should
promptly register as such. They will receive
all the privileges of the meeting, as in the
case of registered members and associates, ex-
cept that of voting.

No special program of entertainment for
visiting women is planned for the Chicago
meeting. The local committee announces,
however, that Ida Noyes Hall will be open to
visiting women throughout the meeting, in-
cluding the use of the dining and club facili-
ties of this hall, which is perhaps the finest
club for women that has ever been built. Vis-

SCIENCE

[N. 8. Vou. LII. No, 1353

iting women will wish to inspect Ida Noyes
Hall and its various arrangements. The
building cost nearly half a million dollars. It
will serve as a meeting-place and resting place
for women during the meeting, better than has
ever been enjoyed at any previous meeting of
the association.

Dining-room service will be maintained
throughout the meeting, at the University of
Chicago Commons and at Ida Noyes Hall.

Persons attending the Chicago meeting may
have mail, etc., addressed to them in the care
of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, Registration Office, Reynolds
Club, the University of Chicago, Chicago, Il.
They should call at the registration room
daily, to inspect the personal bulletin, which
will be conveniently located for quick inspec-
tion. If a person’s name appears on this bul-
letin, it means that he should enquire at the
proper desk for mail, ete. At the close of the
meeting, or upon leaving, those in attendance
are urged to leave a forwarding address for
mail, ete. If this is not done, letters, etc., that
are not delivered must be taken to Washing-
ton and resent from there, to the addresses
shown in the files of the permanent secretary’s
office.

It has been impossible to secure any reduc-
tion in railroad rates for those attending the
Chicago meeting. This matter is receiving
serious attention and it is hoped that arrange-
ments may be made by which reduced rates
may be granted to the association for future
years.

Members of the association and of associ-
ated societies who present papers at the Chi-
cago meeting should come provided with ab-
stracts of their papers, clearly and popularly
presented, for the use of the Chicago press.
All such material is to be given out through
the publicity office of the local committee
which will be in charge of Mr. Gilbert A.
Bliss, of the local committee. It is hoped that
all those in attendance will take an interest in
this aspect of the meeting and that they will
cooperate with Mr. Bliss, to the end that a suit-
able publicity may be obtained. This is a very

DECEMBER 3, 1920]

important feature in the work for which the
association exists.

Those in attendance at the meeting may
obtain information of all sorts by applying at
the information desk in the registration room.
Before the meeting, information may be ob-
tained from the secretaries of the sections or
of the associated societies (regarding pro-
grams, ete.), from the chairman of the local
committee, Professor J. Paul Goode, of the
University of Chicago regarding local ar-
rangements, or from the permanent secretary’s
office in Washington regarding general asso-
ciation affairs.

Burton E. Livineston,
Permanent Secretary
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
WASHINGTON, D. C.

A MORE NEARLY RATIONAL
SYSTEM OF UNITS

Systems of units for physical magnitudes
are designed to permit arithmetical calcula-
tions on the basis of known physical laws, and
the test of the efficiency of any system is the
extent to which it facilitates such computa-
tions. There are two ways, in particular, in
which this can be accomplished: first, by re-
lating the units of any one magnitude in a
manner consistent with the system of arith-
metic in use; with a decimal arithmetic this
requires that the ratio of such units be a
power of 10, e. g., the erg and the joule; sec-
ond, by so relating the units of different “ di-
mensions” as to prevent the appearance of
arbitrary and irrational factors in the equa-
tions expressing the fundamental laws of nat-
ural science, e. g., the “gas law” should take
the form “ pressure = concentration X tem-
perature” (P=CT) rather than “ pressure is
proportional to concentration X temperature ”
(P=CRT). The failure of the “ English”
system of weights and measures to meet these
requirements is a matter of common knowl-
edge, but it seems worth while to point out

1 Forty-first Contribution from the Color Lab-
oratory of the Bureau of Chemistry, Washington,
D. C.

SCIENCE

525

how little superior in these respects is the
present “ metric” system.

The common basis of both these systems of
physical and chemical units comprises: (1) the
decimal arithmetic, (2) the mean solar second
and (3) the table of atomic weights based on
O=16. It is not intended here to discuss
these fundamentals, beyond pointing out that
no one of them is entirely rational, and if they
are retained it will be only because the diffi-
culties in the way of superseding them out-
weigh the advantages of a change. The pur-
pose of this paper is an inquiry whether on
this common foundation there can be con-
strued a system of units superior to either of
the two now in common use.

1. Two systems of arithmetic with a base other
than 10 are suggested by the methods of division
of units in the case of ‘‘English’’ weights and
measures (a) the twelve-system, illustrated by the
dozen and gross and by the divisions of the foot
and the pound Troy; (b) the two-system, illus-
trated by the divisions of the inch, the gallon and .
the pound avoirdupois. Both modes of division
are used in coinage, though not at all consistently,
(a) in the case of the shilling of twelve pence, (b)
in the penny of four farthings and the distinctly
non-decimal division of the dollar into quarters
(and even into ‘‘bits’’ of 124 cents). In a recent
eulogy of the twelve-system (Science, N. S., 50,
239-242 (1919)), Dr. William Benjamin Smith
says:

‘*This best of numerical systems is not the ten-
system (which is recommended only by the fact
that man has ten fingers and ten toes!) but the
twelve-system, whose virtues are imbedded in the
nature of number itself.’’

2. The humor of basing a decimal system of
weights and measures on a unit of time obtained
by dividing the mean solar day successively into
24, 60 and 60 parts, hardly needs emphasis. The
mean solar day is the average interval between
the passage of the sun across the meridian for any
locality. The maximum difference between mean
solar time and true solar time is 16 minutes
(about November 1 of each year).

3. The change from the H y, 1 system of atomic
weights to the present O = 16 was made both be-
cause of the uncertainty of the H:O ratio and
because the oxygen standard made more of the
atomic weights approximate whole numbers. Re-

526

sults lately obtained on the atomic weights of the
isotopes of lead and of neon indicate that one
sixteenth of the atomic weight of oxygen is very
near indeed to the unit mass of the Prout hy-
pothesis, but it is highly improbable that it should
be identical with it. (It would require that oxygen
consist of one isotype only—or a still less prob-
able balancing of heavy and light isotopes.)

The most flagrant case of irrationally re-
lated metric units is that of electrical quan-
tity, for which four units, no two of which are
commensurable, are in actual use. These
four are (1) the electrochemical equivalent of
electricity, or Faraday, (2) the coulomb, which
is one tenth of the centimeter-gram-second
electromagnetic unit, (3) the centimeter-gram-
second electrostatic unit and (4) the “ Heavi-
side” electrostatic unit, differing from the
foregoing by the factor 1/V47, and used by
Lorentz and others in electron theory calcula-
tions in order to give a simple form to the
fundamental equations for the electromagnetic
field. The ratio of the electromagnetic to the
electrostatic unit is numerically the same
as the velocity of light, hence a reconcilia-
tion is possible only in a system which
makes the numerical velocity of light a
power of 10. A unit of the Heaviside
type is quite satisfactory for practical use,

SCIENCE

[N. 8S. Von. LII. No. 1353

hence the adoption of such a unit would
obviate the necessity of having one unit for
theoretical and another for practical work.
Finally, by a suitable selection of a unit of
mass the electromagnetic and electrochemical
units can be brought into harmony. (It
should be noted that this involves giving up
the use of water as a standard of density.) To
summarize: it is possible—by making the nu-
merical value of the velocity of light a power
of 10, by suitably choosing the unit of mass,
and by using the Heaviside definition of unit
charge—to derive a single unit of electrical
quantity suitable for all purposes.

Heat and temperature units are to be de-
rived by purely dynamic definitions, without
regard to the properties of the substance,
water. Unit temperature is the temperature at
which unit concentration of a “ perfect gas”
exerts unit pressure on the walls of its con-
tainer; while the difference between the heat
capacities of a mol of “perfect gas” at con-
stant pressure and at constant volume is the
unit of heat capacity and of entropy.

In Table I. are given the numerical factors
which, in various combinations, are involved
in conversion between the proposed units and
those of the centimeter-gram-second system.

TABLE I

Definition
4nr Ratio of area of aphere to square of radius

10° Numerical value assigned in proposed system to the veloc-
ity of light and to the electrochemical equivalent’....

Velocity of light in ¢.g.s. units ............

Electrochemical equivalent? in ¢.g.s. units
Gas constant in ¢.g.s. units

by tys

Tables I1., III. and IV. give the ratios of
the proposed units to those of the metric sys-
tem—both algebraically in terms of the fac-
tors terms listed in Table I., and numerically.

2The values for the last four are taken from
Kaye and Laby’s tables,

3 The quantity of electricity required to deposit
electrolytically one equivalent of metal. £, the
electricity in ¢.g.s, electromagnetic units per equiv-
alent, is used instead of F, the number of coulombs
per equivalent, to avoid mixing engineering and
¢.g.8. units,

eee vreneeveeve

Value of the mean calorie in ¢.g.s, units ....

Numerical Value?
pe ap eee! 12,5664
12.5664
o spe Rees oes 29,986,000,000. em. per sec.

9,647.2 units per equivalent
83,150,000. ergs per mol per °C.
41,850,000. ergs per calorie

Numerical values are given only when the
metric unit compared has a name in common
use.

The names for multiples and submultiples of
the fundamental units would be formed with
the prefixes now in use in the metric system,
e. g., the kilo-unit of electrie current and the
mega-units of pressure and of temperature
would probably be used more than the funda-
mental units; but, aside from the preference
of one multiple or submultiple to another, the

DECEMBER 3, 1920]

SCIENCE

527

TABLE II
Geometric, Kinematic and Mechanical

In Terms of C.G.S. Unit

Unit of | In Terms of Engineering Unit
: c c
a dik iano easbosiins 0° | 29.986 cm. Tou | 0.29986 m.
| co m
, Prt ese | i018 | 898.92 sq. cm. i02 | 0.089892 = . m.
| (oad 3
WOR OUeE Ns os Ean cee ves | io | 26951. c.c. 10% | 0.026951 cu. m.
ee ae | 1 | 1 sec. 1 | 1 sec.
. | | c
RS eee | 10 | 29.986 cm. per sec. | Tou 0.29986 m. per sec.
? c c
ST eee 10° | 29.986 cm. per sec.” | Tou 0.29986 m. per sec.”
c } | c
bai pin ce wet ve | 25. , ———_ | 0. ;
Mass.. | dn BE? 7 25.636 g 4n10°? | 0.025636 kg
| 10%
Concentration ............ dnk? | 0.9512 molal | |
| 107 | | |
4xcth? 0.0009512 g. per c.c. |
| é | e |
RE ee | dn 10°F? | 768.62 g. cm. per sec. dnl0"E2 | 0.0076862 kg. m. per sec.
2 | 2
c c
I iA Na iE a ——___ | 768.6 ———_ | 0. j. ,
0 | 410°? | 68.62 dyne 4x 10™B2 | 0.0076862 j. per m
| 109 | | 108 |
PN ids Ca erntiaxe | ick? | 0.85504 dyne per cm.’ (bar)| ick* | 0.085504 j. per m.*
| 3 | a | 3 |
Energy Sete ere Ce? fl eee 47108R2 | 23045. erg. 44102 h? | 0.0023045 joule

units in engineering and scientific work would
be identical.

The advantages to be gained are indicated
by the following statement of some of the
points of difference from both the English and
the metric system. In the proposed system:

The fundamental unit of capacity (liquid
measure) is the cube of the unit of length.

Astronomic units of distance now in use,
“light second,” “light hour,” ete., are com-
mensurable with the units proposed, the first
being one billion times the fundamental unit
of length.

Under “standard conditions” one mol of
“perfect gas” occupies unit volume,

The difference between the specific heats of
a “perfect gas” at constant pressure and at
constant volume is 1.

Unit current in electrolysis deposits per sec-
ond one billionth of an equivalent of metal.

The electrostatic capacity of an air con-

denser and the permeance of a magnetic air
gap (or a magnetic circuit in air) are each
one billionth of their respective “shape fac-
tors.’”’4

The electric flux from a charge is equal to
the charge, and the magnetic flux from a mag-
netic pole is equal to the pole strength.

The magnetomotive force, per turn, of a
coil is equal to the current flowing through it.

The electromotive foree, per turn, generated
in a coil is equal to the rate of change of the
flux within it.

The energy of an electric, or magnetic, field
is equal to one half the product of the flux and,
respectively, the electromotive or magneto-
motive force.

4‘‘Plow of Heat through Furnace Walls; the

Shape Factor,’’ Irving Langmuir, E, Q. Adams
and G. 8. Meikle, Trans. Amer, Electrochem, Soc.,
94, 53 (1914).

SAS ae ECTS a

528 SCIENCE [N. 8. Vou. LII. No. 1353
TABLE III
Electric and Magnetic
In Terms of C.G.8. Unit
Unit of In Terms of Engineering Unit
Electrostatic Electromagnetic
c c c
PR sisted ber od a eee al inl OR 4n10°B ix10E 0.0024732 coulomb
Cond c c
GIS 5 o's bs ae Reka ee ee in10°F 4n10°R 4n10°E 0.0024732 ampere
2 c c c?
Hs oe cs 6 lee i 10°F 10°F iotR 0.9318 volt
P 0*
GEN.) osc beet antee butawen on ae = 0.0026542 farad
4r 4rc 4nc
A 4
SE Ni o ocds cose tecnadll el 4nc Sze 376.74 ohms
c 10°
ct ra (rad .
RE uae coe vevnnes seule 4x10 5? 471086? 4%10% 52 0.0023045 joule
c oi
PES BP ih ry ee ———= @
ux 10°F 10°F 93180000 gauss
: 10° 10°
I, ohio in CES en awe : — =
nsity =e E 103660 maxwell
, c? c ,
t _). .. eee —— ——— J
Magnetomotive force 10°F 10°F 0.0031079 gilbert
MII. =< ne csc ola.n wea dee c “ = 0.000000000033353 oersted
rr ra
EEN’ is oo 6 0 can bees ea ee — a
— 471087? 441085? “=
TABLE IV
Thermal
Unit of | In Terms of Calorimetric Units | In Terms of C.G.S. Units
|
Heat capacit J | 50.934 calories per r°C a. | 2131600000. er rg. per°C
eee ey | ™ per g. pe . ink? | . ergs per g. pe ‘
| cR cR
> : ° Pmt ; °C.
I ae aa | fees | 50.934 calories per g. per ° C. in? | 2131600000. ergs per g. per °C
| c | ce? |
Temperature ........ | Gouge | 0-000010811 degree rs | 0.000010811 degree
c | : ce
Energy 1 ne Ose poe aceite 47108E2J | 0.00055064 calorie 4710" F?2 | 23045. erg

Find the capacity of a vat of length 10, width
5 and depth 4. Answer: 10 X 5 X 4= 200

Find the volume of a sphere of 1 light. second
radius. Answer:

A few examples of the working of the system
of units follow. It has been thought best not
to attempt to coin names for the proposed
units, hence the values will be given without
designation unless a multiple or submultiple
of the fundamental unit has been used, when
the abbreviation of the appropriate Metric
prefix will be added (y, micro-; m, milli-; ¢,

$(10°)? = $9 X 10”.

Find the molecular weight of a substance,
a mass of 15 m of which occupies a volume of

centi-; d, deci-; D, deka; H, hecto-; K, kilo-;
M, mega-).

12 m, at a temperature of 30 M and a pressure
of 12 M. Answer:

DrcEMBER 3, 1920]

15 X 30

= 31.25.
12 X 1.2 ,

Find the time required with an electric cur-
rent of 10 K and a potential of 100 to heat
unit mass of helium (atomic weight, 4)
through a temperature interval of 10 M, at
constant pressure. (The specific heat of a
monatomic gas at constant volume is 3/2.)
Answer:

¥X 10'X (+1) _

ae x 100 : 62.5 sce
Find the mass of copper (valence 2, at.wt.
63.57) that would be deposited by a current of

10 K in 1,000 sec. Answer:
63.57 X 10* X 1,000

= 0.318.

2x 10°

Find the capacity of a condenser with 100
sheets of dielectric (of dielectric constant 2)
each of unit area and thickness 0.01. Answer:

100 X 1X 2 =2X 105
10° X 0.01 = 20p.
Find the inductance of a coil of 100 turns
wound on a closed core of iron of permeability

1,000, of cross section 0.2 X 0.2 and length of
magnetic circuit 4. Answer:

100° X 1,000 x .2 X .2

10° X 4

Find the magnetic energy of the core when

a current of 1 K is passing through the coil.
Answer:

= 10~‘.

4 X (10°)? K 10-4 = 50.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the
foregoing is primarily a description of a
method of deriving a system of units, and that
a system of substantially equal convenience
could be devised with an other than decimal
arithmetic, a different unit of time or another
basis of atomic weights.

SUMMARY
1. On the common foundation of the English
and metric systems of units there can be con-
structed a system superior to either.
2. Its bases are (1) the mean solar second,
(2) a length of 29.986 cm. and (3) a mass of
25.636 g.

SCIENCE

529

3. Tables of the relation of the various units
in this system to the corresponding metric
units are given.

4. A single set of units serves for both engi-
neering and scientific purposes.

Exuiot Q. ApDAmss

BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY,

WASHINGTON, D. C.

PALEONTOLOGY AND PRAGMATISM

Two recent publications of the United
States National Museum admirably illustrate
a phase of the scientific activities of the gov-
ernment to which I have long thought of call-
ing attention, since they are accomplished
without noise or press notices and are of im-
mense value to the people as a whole in ad-
dition to their intrinsic scientific worth.

The publications to which I refer are North
American Early Tertiary Bryozoa, by Canu
and Bassler, constituting Bulletin 106, and
Contributions to the Geology and Paleon-
tology of the Canal Zone, by T. Wayland
Vaughan and associates, constituting Bulle-
tin 103. More particularly I wish to refer to
the work of Canu and Bassler on the Bryozoa,
Joseph A. Cushman on the Foraminifera,
Marshall A. Howe on the calcareous alge,
and T. Wayland Vaughan on the corals.

These are all groups of organisms whose
habits are exceedingly interesting and whose
forms are often highly artistic, but none of
which furnish food for commercial fishes or
humanity, or are objects of trade,’ or yield
any gums, wax, gems, or minerals that might
make them seemingly worth while to the man
in the street.

The Bryozoa are inconspicuous colonial
animals, some of them with a beauty all their
own, but seldom appreciated since they require
magnification in order to be seen to advan-
tage. Some are usually included in amateur
collections of so-called sea weeds, but to the
average person a bryozoan is as unknown as a
native of Mars. The recently installed sea

1 The red coral of commerce and its imitations
are exceptions, but these are European and not
American products and do not affect the foree of
the statement.

930

bottom exhibit in colored glass at the Amer-
ican Museum of Natural History will un-
doubtedly call the attention of a considerable
circle to the wonderful habits and esthetic
forms of these tiny animals. That the mono-
graph by Canu and Bassler is a splendid con-
tribution to paleozoology goes without saying
—the names of the authors are a guarantee
of that—what I wish to emphasize is the
utilitarian value of such studies.

The Bryozoa belong to a geologically very
old phylum, the vast majority secrete a cal-
careous skeleton, and since they are so plenti-
ful and so tiny they are preserved as fossils
in great abundance at very many geological
horizons. They are thus admirably adapted
to become medals of creation, and highly
satisfactory time markers for geologists.
They well illustrate the old aphorism of the
importance of the insignificant, since while
infinitely varied in detail, their specific limits
are usually sharp and their range in time is
not too great to enable them to be used with
great precision in the determination of the
age of geological formations and their corre-
lation over wide areas. Their value has long
been recognized in the older geological forma-
tions of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, but in
this country at least, their usefulness in de-
limiting the later formations, has hitherto
remained unevaluated.

Geologic correlation may seem remote from
the affairs of the workaday world and yet
upon its successful consummation rests not
only the understanding of the local and gen-
eral relations underground that are the basis
of all exploitation of artesian waters, oil, and
other mineral resources of the earth, but it is
of prime importance in determining the places
or origin and the paths of migration of the
life of bygone days. The early Tertiary
bryozoa of the Atlantic Coastal Plain not
only serve to substantiate the evidence derived
from other classes of fossils, but may be ex-
pected to eventually help determine whether
the past floodings of this region were simul-
taneous with similar events in the Old World
and hence caused by changes in sea level or
whether these were due to regional changes

SCIENCE

[N. 8. Vou, LII. No, 1353

in the attitude and elevation or depression of
the land.

National Museum Bulletin 103 contains
elevent different papers upon the geology and
paleontology of the Canal Zone and much
additional information with regard to the
Antilles, especially with respect to the corals.
In fact, if the Mollusea could have been in-
cluded, it would serve as a complete manual
of the geology and paleontology of that region.

A knowledge of caleareous alge, either
recent or fossil, is confined to a few special-
ists. Their fossil remains have never been
much used in stratigraphic geology, because,
like the bryozoa, diatoms and foraminifera,
sufficient intelligence had not been focused
upon them to determine their value as indi-
cators of horizons, past events, or past phys-
ical conditions. It is only recently that their
importance in the formation of magnesium
carbonate and the great part they take in the
formation of the so-called coral reefs of both
the past and the present, has been understood.

The Foraminifera constitute a group of
organisms that are exceedingly abundant in
existing seas, and useful in a variety of ways
in studies of plankton and experimental evo-
lution. They belong to the great and prim-
itive group of the Protozoa, or unicellular
animals, and since, unlike so many of their
congeners, they early acquired a siliceous or
caleereous skeleton they have been preserved
in ever increasing abundance in certain
marine formations from the Silurian down to
the present.

Although they have been utilized to some
extent abroad, particularly in the recognition
of zones in the nummulitic limestones of the
Mediterranean regions, they have attracted
but few students in this country, and have
been rather generally regarded as lacking
in chronologic value. This reputation was
largely the result of the specific limits as
conceived by English students such as Parker,
Jones and Brady, who published large stand-
ard works in which single species showed most
astonishing ranges of millions of years. Nat-
urally forms that live on unchanged for eons

DECEMBER 3, 1920]

may safely be ignored in trying to determine
the age and succession of the rocks.

It may be doubted, however, if any class
of organisms do not have an interesting and
important story to tell provided we learn their
language. This has proven to be the case
with our American foraminifera at the hands
of Cushman. Since forams are generally
small and abundant when present at all they
stand a much better chance of preservation
in both compact limestones and coarse sandy
marls than do the tests of higher and larger
marine organisms. They have been partic-
ularly useful in tracing the Tertiary geo-
logical zones around the equatorial belt of the
world. In Panama, around the borders and
on the islands of the Spanish Main, as well
as in our own southern coastal plain, the
Foraminifera have proven to be often the
only, and always among the most satisfactory
types of fossils. Widely distributed in the
seaways, rapidly mutating into recognizable
differentials, they have been one of the keys
to our understanding of the history of equa-
torial America.

They, like the Bryozoa, are generally small
enough to be present in well samples where
larger forms are not encountered or are largely
smashed beyond recognition by the drills.
They have lately been shown to be of pro-
found significance in the location of the oil
sands by means of a study of well cuttings
in the Texas oil fields. They are almost the
only fossils in the thick series of calcareous
clays that overlie the oil sands in the Tampico
district, and in this last region alone will
eventually contribute more in dollars and
cents to the wealth of the world than all of
the issues of the Congressional Record that
have ever been printed.

Probably the laymen requires no introduc-
tion to corals. All boys can probably be
divided into two classes, at least such was
once the case—those who avowed that they
were going to be locomotive engineers when
they grew up, and those who longed to ex-
plore a coral reef or live on a South Pacific
coral atoll. Any one who has never experi-
enced the thrill that comes from contem-

SCIENCE

531

plating the profusion of surging life in and
around a coral reef, or does not know the
fascinating beauty of even the dead skeletons
of coral life would do well to read the popular
illustrated account by Vaughan in the last
annual report of the Smithsonian Institution.

Corals are all small marine animals, but
many of them dwell in colonies, notably the
so-called stone corals, and secrete the cal-
careous skeletons familiarly known as corals.
Like the Bryozoa, corals are sedentary except
for the short period when they have a free-
swimming larval fling as it were. Their
ancestors go back as far as the fossil records
go, and they have never suffered the obliquity
as horizon markers that has at times attached
to the Bryozoa and Foraminifera.

Reef corals require definite temperatures and
environmental conditions in order to flourish.
hence they are useful in_ retrospective
prophecy. Geologically they are especially
important during later geological times in
Mediterranean regions—in the south of Eu-
rope, the Antilles, and the balance of equa-
torial America. Their contribution to our
understanding of the relations and geological
history of the Antilles is probably not
equalled and certainly not exceeded by any
other group of organisms.

In conclusion to cite but a single pragmatic
instance of the ultimate commercial value of
these monographic paleontologic studies that
are published by the National Museum—the
exploration for oil in central and northern
South America, and the successful interpre-
tation of structure that is the key to com-
mercial success or failure in the far off tierra
caliente of Colombia or Venezuela, rests very
largely on the application of the results of
the unostentatious and unadvertised paleon-
tologie studies.

Epwarp W. Berry

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
A NEW OBSERVATORY IN CLEVELAND >
Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland,

Ohio, dedicated a new observatory on Colum-
bus Day, October 12, 1920. It is to be known

532

as the Warner and Swazey Observatory, in
honor of the donors, members of the noted firm
that have made so many of the largest and
best telescopes in this country. Mr. Warner is
a trustee of Case School of Applied Science,
and both men have long taken an active in-
terest in the work of the school. They se-
cured the site on the brow of a hill overlook-
ing a residential section of East Cleveland,
about two miles from the campus, but easily
accessible, and erected on it a handsome brick
structure filled with all the necessary equip-
ment to carry on college instruction in as-
tronomy. The gift to Case is the most note-
worthy addition to astronomical equipment
in this section of the country, and especially
significant because it is in the home city of
the men whose name it will bear.

The observatory is L-shaped, with the tower
and dome at the angle. One wing contains two
astronomical transits, and a zenith telescope,
all from the Warner and Swazey factory.
The other wing contains a constant-tempera-
ture clock room, provided with two Riefler
clocks, and a library room, suitable for class
use as well, housing the school’s collection of
astronomical books. The tower will accom-
modate a small class where the ten-inch tele-
scope is mounted. The lens was ground by
John Brashear, of Pittsburgh. The tube is
fitted with every device known to the expert
makers to increase its usefulness. In the
basement are living apartments for a care-
taker, a storeroom, a battery room, and a dark
room for photographic purposes.

At the dedicatory exercises, which were held
outdoors on the grounds, both Mr. Swazey and
Mr. Warner spoke, the former relating some of
the firm’s experiences in the making and im-
proving of astronomical instruments, and the
latter referring especially to the instrument
presented to Case, and making the formal
presentation. President Charles S. Howe ac-
cepted the gift on behalf of the trustees. The
main address of the occasion was given by
Director W. W. Campbell, of the Lick Observ-
atory of the University of California, on the
subject, “The Daily Influence of Astron-
omy.” Professor D. T. Wilson, professor of

SCIENCE

[N. 8. Vou. LII. No, 1353

astronomy at Case, outlined the work done at
the school in astronomy, and the services he
hoped the school would be able to render the
community by means of this splendid observa-

tory.
K. O. THompson

A SURVEY OF FOREST RESEARCH

“NortH American Forest Research” pub-
lished as Vol. 1, Part 4, No. 4, of the Bulletin
of the National Research Council, Washing-
ton, D. C., is a summary of the investigative
projects in forestry and allied subjects. It
covers the work carried on in 1919-1920 by
national, state, and provincial governments,
schools of forestry, scientific schools and pri-
vate interests in Canada, Newfoundland and
the United States. The work is a compila-
tion by the committee on American forest re-
search, of the society of American Foresters.
It is the first and only authoritative and com-
plete outline of research work in forestry
devoted to increasing the knowledge of the
best means of producing and utilizing one of
the greatest natural resources of the North
American continent.

Agricultural research, as exemplified by the
agricultural experiment stations, has proved
its practical value. Forest research attempts
to do for forest production what agricultural
research has done for agricultural production.

The bulletin describes the investigative
work that is being done in four main fields.
(1) Utilization of forest products; (2) Proper
handling of the forest and its perpetuation;
(3) Proper handling of the range within or
adjoining forests; (4) Forest economics, or
the relation of the forests and their products
to the economic life of the continent.

The survey is said to contain brief descrip-
tions of studies being carried on for practic-
ally every important forest region, type and
tree and in every province and state in which
the forests are an important economic factor
in North America.

A. SCORE FOR HEALTH ACTIVITIES

Tue New York State Department of Health
has prepared an activities score for cities with

DECEMBER 3, 1920]

a population of from 25,000 to 175,000 inhabi-
tants. Of a possible 1,000 points for perfect,
adequate public health nursing service counts
75; other follow-up social service 10; adequate
dispensary or clinic service 70; hospital facili-
ties for the communicable diseases 45; a day
nursery 10; Little Mothers’ League 10; good
newspaper publicity regarding health matters
50; and a physician in charge of the infant
welfare station 15. This gives a total of 285
points for activities in which the nurse is di-
rectly concerned. In general the score pro-
vides the following distribution of credit:

Communieable disease control:

Tuberculosis, perfect score ............. 60
Venerea] diseases, perfect score ......... 70
Other communicable diseases, perfect score. 80

Adequate laboratory facilities and use of
ge as oe eee ee be ts a 100
Infant and maternal welfare .............. 90

Milk and food inspection ................. 100
WER GI Sede ccc ces ecccccvecceldcnene 100
Sewage, garbage and manure disposal ..... 40
Record keeping ........-c.secssesccsoves 85

120

Publie health education ..............-+..
An appropriation of at least 50 cents per
capita for health protection ............ 100
Effective enforcement of regulations govern-
ing barber shops, common towels, drinking

and eating utensils ............-cescceees 20
Unusually meritorious public health work

along either new or old lines ............ 35

FR Se eared sae «ah's eoreme ernie ma pb emp 1,000

COUNCIL MEETING OF THE ILLINOIS STATE
ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

At the call of President Cowles a meeting
of the council was held at the University
Club, Chicago, on September 28. There were
present President Cowles, retiring President
Ward, Vice-president Knipp, Treasurer Water-
mann and Librarian Crook.

The first question taken up was how best to
meet the great misfortune which had befallen
the academy in the death of Secretary Pricer.
It was voted that the librarian continue until
the next meeting to serve as secretary, as he
had been doing at the request of the president
since the death of Secretary Pricer. With

SCIENCE

533

some misgivings as to the wisdom of such
appointment the librarian consented.

In conformity with action at the Danville
meeting the following legislative committee
was appointed: H. C. Cowles, Chicago, chair-
man; William Barnes, Decatur; E. W. Payne,
Springfield; R. M. Barnes, Lacon; Geo. Lang-
ford, Joliet.

It was voted that the fiscal year of the
academy begin with the calendar year and
that dues be payable on the December Ist pre-
ceding, to accord with arrangements with the
A. A. A. S. The secretary was instructed to
mail the three volumes of Transactions which
are to appear shortly, to paid-up members
only.

It was decided to hold the annual meeting
for 1921 at Carbondale some time in the
spring with the hope of having a field day and
the president was requested to begin arrange-
ments for such meeting. The president was
requested to appoint chairmen for the various
sections which it might seem advisable to
form at the coming meeting. The treasurer
presented matters concerning various classes
of members and the relation between the State
Academy and the A. A. A. S. It was sug-
gested that he publish a list of members whose
address is unknown, in hope that some mem-
ber can supply the information wanted.

The following committee was appointed
to continue the work of interesting high
school science clubs, other science clubs,
boards of education, teachers, ete. in the work
of the academy and to suggest to them the
desirability of sending delegates to academy
meetings: Charles T. Knipp, Chairman,
Urbana; W. G. Watermann, Evanston; R. H.
Linkins, Normal; H. S. Pepoon, Chicago.

A. R. Crook,
Acting Secretary

THE ENGINEERING FOUNDATION
AN anonymous gift of $200,000 toward a five-
million-dollar fund for the promotion of re-
search in science and in engineering is an-
nounced by Engineering Foundation at its
headquarters in the Engineering Societies
Building, New York City. This contribution

534

brings the foundation’s fund to $500,000. It
is the aim of the foundation to obtain one
million dollars by January first.

Engineering Foundation was organized to
care for the gifts aggregating $300,000 of Am-
brose Swasey, of Cleveland, Ohio, the income
from these gifts being devoted to research.
Since its organization as a trust fund in 1914,
the funds of the foundation have been used to
aid the National Research Council and others
in performing research directly connected with
engineering. Mr. Swasey’s gifts were made to
United Engineering Society as a nucleus of a
large endowment “for the furtherance of re-
search in science and in engineering, or for
the advancement in any other manner of the
profession of engineering and the good of
mankind.”

The Engineering Foundation is administered
by the engineering foundation board composed
of members from the American Society of
Civil Engineers, American Institute of Min-
ing and Metallurgical Engineers, American
Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Ameri-
can Institute of Electrical Engineers and
members at large. The board is a department
of United Engineering Society. It is the in-
strumentality of the founder societies named
for the stimulation, direction and support of
research.

The officers of Engineering Foundation are
Charles F. Rand, chairman; Edward Dean
Adams, first vice-chairman; Frank B. Jewett,
second vice-chairman; Joseph Struthers, treas-
urer; and Alfred D. Flinn, secretary. The ex-
ecutive committee is composed of Charles F.
Rand, chairman; Edward Dean Adams, George
B. Pegram, Frank B. Jewett and H. Hobert
Porter. ,

A statement issued by the foundation says:

Potential benefits for the whole nation are very
great, but these benefits can not be gained with-
out expenditure of effort and materials. Research
workers must be supported. Equipment, materials,
working places and traveling facilities must be
provided. Since the benefits accrue to the pro-

fession, the industries and the public in general,
support in large measure should come from gen-
era] funds, such as those provided by endowments.

SCIENCE

[N. 8. Vou. LIT. No, 1353

Engineering Foundation seeks to build up its
endowment to dimensions worthy of the engineer-
ing profession. Engineers connected with indus-
trial and financial organizations having great re-
sources can aid by convincing proper officials of
corporations that the continued prosperity of our
industries depends upon continued progress of re-
search. Since the commercial and industrial es-
tablishments of the country reap the larger pro-
portions of the financial profits arising from
scientific and technological work, these establish-
ments should contribute liberally to the support of
research.

There are many problems relating to the mate-
rials and forces of engineering on which further
knowledge is needed. Progress will be made ap-
proximately in proportion to the funds made avyail-
able. But there are other kinds of problems which
concern the engineer. No longer may one declare,
as did Professor J. H. Johnson a generation ago,
that ‘‘Engineering differs from all other learned
professions in this, that its learning has to do only
with the inanimate world, the world of dead mat-
ter and force.’’

Many acute social and economie questions of our
day need the dispassionate, impartial, patient study
of scientists and technologists, To these questions
must now be applied the scientific method of col-
lecting facts by thorough study, and the engineer’s
eapacity for planning and performing, instead of
ill-considered ‘‘reforms.’’

Occasionally experimental work is undertaken in
accordance with a well-conceived plan as a neces-
sary or desirable adjunct to the main operation.
In such cases the exigencies of the main operation
sooner or later interrupt the experimental work;
or the men who have it in hand leave the force; or
the information is gained but never written up;
or the statement is buried in some report of lim-
ited circulation; or greater familiarity with re-
search methods and a broader conception of the
problem could, with small additional expense, have
secured much more valuable resuJts and have made
them more generally useful.

These services and many others could be per-
formed by Engineering Foundation, if adeauate
funds could be placed at its disposal. The Foun-
dation does not plan to build laboratories and con-
duet research work directly, but rather to stimu-
late, coordinate and support research work in
existing scientific and industrial laboratories, co-
operating, in so far as possible, with the National
Research Council.

DECEMBER 3, 1920]

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS

At the annual meeting of the Royal Society
on November 30, Dr. C..S. Sherrington,
Wayneflete professor of physiology at the
University of Oxford, was elected president
to sueceed Sir Joseph Thomson.

Dr. E. H. Grirrirus has been elected gen-
eral treasurer of the British Association in
succession to the late Professor John Perry.

Tue Weldon medal has been conferred by
the University of Oxford upon Dr. J. Arthur
Harris, of the Station for Experimental Evo-
lution of the Carnegie Institution of Wash-
ington, in recognition of his work in bi-
ometry. The Weldon Medal, accompanied by
a monetary prize of about £90 may be
awarded every three years “. . . without re-
gard to nationality, sex, or membership of any
University, to the person who, in the judg-
ment of the electors, has, in the six years next
preceding the date of the award, published the
most noteworthy contribution to biometric
science,” in the field of zoology, botany, an-
thropology, sociology, psychology or medical
science.

TueE King of Italy has conferred upon J. E.
Zanetti, assistant professor of chemistry in
Columbia University, the order of the crown
with the rank of officer, for services rendered
during the war as lieutenant-colonel in the
Chemical Warfare Service. He has also re
ceived from the French government the legion
of honor and from the British government the
distinguished service order.

Proressor ALBERT P. Wits, of the depart-
ment of physics in Columbia University, and
Dr. Frederick Barry, formerly instructor in
chemistry, have been awarded the Ernest
Kempton Adams research fellowship by
Columbia University. This fellowship was
founded in 1905 by Edward Dean Adams in
memory of his son Ernest Kempton Adams,
E.E. ’97, A.M. ’98. The provision of the
fellowship is that its incumbent “shall prose-
cute researches either in Columbia University
or elsewhere, in the physical sciences, in psy-
chology or in their practical applications.”

SCIENCE

535

Dean P. H. Rours, for fifteen years director
of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Sta-
tion and for the past six years dean of the
Agricultural College, has been granted leave of
absence to locate, establish and conduct an
agricultural institution for the state of Minas
Geraes, Brazil. His address after January 1
will be at Bello Horizonte, Minas Geraes,
Brazil. The president of that state desires to
have a full corps of scientific workers ap-
pointed from the United States.

Ir is stated in Nature that the following
have been elected officers of the Cambridge
Philosophical Society for the session 1920-
1921: President, Professor Seward; Vice-presi-
dents, Sir E. Rutherford, Mr. C. T. R. Wilson
and Dr. E. H. Griffiths; Treasurer, Professor
Hobson; Secretaries, Mr. H. H. Brindley, Pro-
fessor Baker and Mr. F. W. Aston; New Mem-
bers of the Council, Professor Marr, Mr. C. T.
Heyeock, Mr. H. Lamb, Professor Hopkins,
Dr. Bennett and Dr. Hartridge.

Five university lectures on “ The theory of
relativity ” are being given at Cornell Uni-
versity by Dr. L. Silberstein, of the research
laboratory of the Eastman Company, of
Rochester. Dr. Silberstein suggested that a
preliminary lecture beginning with the experi-
mental basis of the theory of relativity would
be helpful, and such an introductory lecture
was given by Professors Floyd K. Richtmyer
and E. H. Kennard, of the physics department
of the university.

C. E. KennetH Mees, director of the re-
search laboratories, Eastman Kodak Company,
delivered a lecture on December 2, before the
Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, on “The
structure of photographic images.”

Eumer D. Merrit, director of the Philip-
pine Bureau of Science, delivered on Novem-
ber 18, an address on “ Land and nature in the
Philippines,” before the Washington Academy
of Sciences.

Proressor J. Stiecuitz, of the University
of Chicago, gave three lectures on the Mayo
Foundation at Rochester, Minnesota, on
November 3, 4, and 5, on “Chemistry and

536

medicine” and “The electric theory of com-
bustion.”

Dr. J. Paut Gooner, professor of geography
in the University of Chicago, gave an address
before the general staff of the College of the
Army at Washington, D. C., on November
12, on “ The geographic and economic founda-
tions of the world war.”

Proressor Harotp Hipsert, of Yale Uni-
versity, lectured before the Stamford Chem-
ical Society on “The constitution of cellu-
lose” on the evening of October 25.

Dr. Freperick H. GetMan lectured before
the Rhode Island State College on November
18 and before the Rhode Island Section of the
American Chemical Scciety at Providence, on
November 19, taking as his subject “The re-
lation between absorption and spectra and
chemical constitution.”

Baron Gerarp DeGeer, professor of geol-
ogy at the University of Stockholm, delivered
two lectures at the University of Michigan on
November 12. The topic of the lectures was
“An autographie record of climate for the
last ten thousands of years,” in which lectures
the methods of work and the applications te
Sweden and America were discussed.

THE annual Huxley memorial lecture of
the Royal Anthropological Institute was de
livered by Dr. A. C. Haddon, in the lecture-
room of the Royal Society on November 23,
on “Migrations of Cultures in British New
Guinea.”

A MONUMENT has been erected at Castera-
Verduzan, Gers, France, to the memory of
the celebrated French surgeon and patholo-
gist, Lannelongue, who died in 1911.

WE learn from Nature that the council of
the British Association has agreed to the for-
mation of a separate section of psychology, as
recommended by the sections of physiology
and educational science at Cardiff, and ap-
proved by the general committee. Considera-
tion of the number and scope of the various
sections is to be referred to a special commit-
tee. It has been decided to invite national
Associations for the Advancement of Science

SCIENCE

[N. 8. Vout. LIT. No, 1353

to send representatives to annual meetings of
the British Association in future.

THE second International Congress of Com-
parative Pathology will be held at Rome in
April, 1921. An organizing committee has
been established under the presidency of Pro-
fessor Perroncito, composed of Professors
Ascoli, Golgi, Grassi, Lustig, Marchiafava,
Paterno, Raffaele, Sanarelli, and Colonel Ber-
toletti. Among the subjects to be discussed are
influenza in man and animals, foot-and-mouth
disease, recent researches in sarcoma and ¢ar-
cinoma, rabies and antirabic vaccination, piro-
plasmosis, acari and scabies in man and ani-
mals, and phylloxera.

Tue Upsilon Sigma Chapter of the Chi Phi
medical fraternity has been installed at Co-
lumbia University. The installation cere-
monies and a dinner of the fraternity were held
recently at the Hotel Netherland in New
York.

Stxce October the Dominion Observatory,
Ottawa, has been recording on the chronograph
the Arlington and Annapolis wireless time sig-
nals, together with the Observatory Riefler
clock.

THE Smithsonian Institution, of which her
father, Joseph Henry, was secretary for many
years, is to be the ultimate beneficiary of the
estate of Caroline Henry, according to the
terms of her will, which has been filed for
probate. An immediate bequest of $1,000 is
made to the institution, together with several
other bequests. The net income from the re-
maining estate is to be distributed among
several beneficiaries upon whose death the es-
tate is to go to the Smithsonian Institution.

Nature writes “the council of the British
Association has recently had before it the
suggestion made by Professor Herdman in his
presidential address at Cardiff for a new Chal-
lenger expedition for the exploration of the
great oceans of the globe with modern instru-
ments and methods. It will be remembered
that this proposal received the support, of all
the sections of the association by formal reso-
lution, and the council was asked to appoint

DECEMBER 3, 1920]

a committee to take the necessary steps to urge
its need upon the government and the nation.
This committee has now been appointed, and
the scientific world will follow its activities
and their result with close attention. An
oceanographical expedition along the lines
contemplated, and equipped with the instru-
ments which modern science can provide, would
lead to a great increase of knowledge both for
scientific study and for profitable development,
and no nation could carry it out more appro-
priately than Great Britain in cooperation with
our overseas Dominions. There will be an
eclipse of the sun in September, 1922, with the
line of totality crossing the Maldive Islands,
and the expedition could very well include an
astronomical party to observe it. It is believed
that the Admirality is favorably disposed
towards the scheme, and every scientific man
hopes that the necessary support will be forth-
coming to carry out the enterprise on a scale
worthy of the British empire.”

THE annual meeting of the British Medical
Association will be held on July 19, and the
scientific sections will meet on July 20, 21
and 22. The annual meeting in 1922 will be
held in Glasgow, and the council has now
decided to recommend to the Representative
Body that the annual meeting in 1923 shall
be held at Portsmouth, in response to an in-
vitation of the Portsmouth Division.

Tue Rockefeller Foundation announces the
gift to the State of Louisiana of the Grand
Chenier Wild Life Refuge, comprising about
35,000 acres, in Cameron and Vermillion
laboratories, equipment, methods, publications.
parishes. The tract was purchased from in-
dividual holders by the foundation in 1914, in
order to preserve the wild life of the country
and has since been under the supervision of
the Department of Conservation of the State.
A condition of the gift is that the tract shall
remain as a perpetual wild-life preserve.

EDUCATIONAL NOTES AND NEWS

THE two weeks’ campaign for a $5,000,000
endowment fund for McGill University ended
with the collection of $6,321,511.

SCIENCE

537

Dr. JoHN GaBBert Bowman, president of the
University of Iowa from 1911 to 1914 has been
elected chancellor of the University of Pitts-
burgh to succeed Dr. Samuel Black Mce-

Cormick.

Tue Cornell University board of trustees at
its meeting on November 13, assigned pro-
fessors to eight professorships which were es-
tablished last June commemorating the service
of Cornellians in the war. The assignments in
science are Professor Ernest Merritt (phys-
ics), in arts and sciences; Professors S. S.
Garrett and E. W. Schroder, in engineering;
Professor W. D. Bancroft (physical chemis-
try), in the graduate school; Professor Suther-
land Simpson (physiology) in the Ithaca di-
vision of the medical college.

AMONG recent appointments to the faculty
of the college of arts and sciences of Tulane
University are the following: Dr. D. S. Elliott,
recently head of the department of physics in
the Georgia Institute of Technology, has been
elected to the professorship of physics. Dr. S.
A. Mahood, chemist of the Forest Products
Laboratory of the University of Wisconsin,
has been elected to an associate professorship
in chemistry. Dr. Herbert E. Buchanan, pro-
fessor of mathematics in the University of.
Tennessee, has been elected to the chair of
mathematics.

Mr. J. W. Barton, recently fellow in psy-
chology in the University of Minnesota and
formerly a member of the faculty of the Uni-
versity of Utah, has been elected associate
professor of psychology in the school of edu-
cation of the University of Wyoming.

R. J. GarBeEr, assistant professor of plant
breeding at the University of Minnesota, has
been appointed associate professor of agronomy
and associate agronomist in the West Virginia
University and Station.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE

RECEDENT LAKE SHORES OF THE
CRETACEOUS

Last year while cyead hunting in the south-
ern Black Hills, Mr. E. F. Arnold called my

538

attention to a remarkable reef of huge con-
cretions in the Lakota of “ Driftwood Cajfion ”
several miles northerly through the “rim”
from the Burlington dam. The forms simu-
lated huge more or less globular cycads three
or four feet through, and displayed much
coarse radial structure, with more or less
granular siliceous or even sandy, to partly
limy texture. As an illustration of these
forms, Plate 21 in “ Lakes of North America,”
by I. C. Russell, showing an old lake Lahon-
tan shore, would all but serve. Though know-
ing the Lakota of the Black Hills so widely,
and never having noted anything similar be-
fore, I looked on the Driftwood reef as be-
longing to the domain of the purely inorganic.

Now, however, this phenomenon has come
up in a much more tangible form. Early this
year Mr. Jesse Simmons, a geologist of the
Midwest Refining Company wrote me that he
had observed innumerable cycad-like masses in
the Lakota [Cloverly] of the Como anticline,
about sixteen miles easterly from Medicine
Bow, Wyoming. On reaching this point last
August I found very striking conditions in-
deed. There is, fairly speaking, a reef of the
calcareous concretionary forms, or tufaceous
heads of finely radiate structure. This lies
near the top of a sandy to conglomeratic rim
80 or more feet thick resting on the broadly
exposed [Como of Marsh] Morrison. The reef
stratum itself marks a change in sedimenta-
tion, being sandy, to shaly or slightly limy,
with the concretions very definitely in the
lower portion and varying from quite glob-
ular types one to two feet in diameter up to
much larger more irregular shaped masses.
While immediately within the reef occur nu-
merous smoothed quartz pebbles from small
up to several pounds weight. Of these many
are simply smoothed or with a ground-glass
surface, but many others are polished, and of
the type known as “ Dreikanter” with the
desert “patina.” Such are like, though in no
way to be confused with the gastroliths of the
Como or other Dinosaurians.

As showing in a most curious manner the
course of events on this reef one of the concre-
tions, a subspherical example one and one half

SCIENCE

[N. 8. Vo. LII. No, 1353

feet through which I packed and sent back to
Yale, contains imbedded well toward its center
one of the highly smoothed pebbles a half
pound in weight. All round this pebble the
radiate concretionary structure runs as un-
interruptedly, the same as if no pebble were
present. Evidently when these siliceous
pebbles containing traces of fossils of some
earlier geologic period were being smoothed
by wind or wave or both, and when the masses
of calcareous tufa were being deposited from
more or less saturated waters, a wave cast that
pebble on top of the first formed basal or
squamous rosette. Then the tufaceous mass,
with little increase of diameter, continued its
growth and regularity of structure upward as
before.

Of such tufa reefs as these, and such pebbly
shore lines of the western Cretaceous, little is
as yet known, and to my knowledge nothing
has been reported hitherto. But inasmuch as
the general facts seem to indicate conditions
not unlike those found about such recedent
lakes as Bonneville and Lahontan, it is hoped
this preliminary note may call forth much fur-
ther observation afield. If those who have per-
chance seen the tufa reefs, and especially the
smoothed pebble beaches, would kindly report
their observations I would esteem it a favor.
It is not improbable that some considerable
and synchronous lacustrine shore lines can be
definitely located, a result which would be of
the first geologic interest.

To what extent algal life has played a part
in the growth of these tufas of more remote
geologic time is not fully understood. In the
case of all the finely radiate tufas there is less
likelihood of substitution of any kind than in
the coarser Thinolitic type of Lake Lahontan
studied by E. S. Dana. It seems unlikely that
the masses often of such striking regularity
of form could result from purely inorganic

processes.
G. R. Wievanp
YALE UNIVERSITY

IS HONEY A LUXURY?

In the October 15, 1920, number of ScrENCE
appeared an article by Mr. J. J. Willaman,

DECEMBER 3, 1920]

headed “Levulose Sirup,” which contained
one statement that I believe should be cor-
rected. He states that of the four sugar
products, glucose, sorghum, honey and maltose,
“sorghum and honey are the only ones that
compete with sugar in sweetness,” and farther
on in the article adds “of the two sweeter
products, honey will probably of necessity al-
ways remain a luxury.” It is this last state-
ment to which I take exception.

Honey should not be considered a luxury.
It is the form of sweet that was used long
before cane sugar was ever thought of, and is
in many places now a staple article of food.
During the sugar shortage caused by the late
war honey was used to a much greater extent
than ever before in this country and thou-
sands of families used honey almost exclu-
sively in place of sugar. In addition, mil-
lions of pounds were exported. One reason
that honey is often considered a luxury is be-
cause it is too frequently bought in such
small quantities that the purchaser is paying
far more for the container and the labor of
putting the honey up in such form than he is
for the honey itself. The writer knows a
number of families who buy extracted honey
regularly in 60 pound lots and consider it a
staple article of food rather than a luxury.

Enormous quantities of honey are used in
baking in this country, both for home baking
and by commercial baking firms, since honey
possesses a number of advantages over sugar
in baking. It is stated that the National
Biscuit Company at one time bought seventy
carloads of honey in one lot. Honey is also
extensively used in the making of fine candies,
high-grade ice cream and soft drinks.

It is a commendable thing to point out as
Mr. Willaman has done, how a new industry
may be developed, especially when the product
of such industry is to be a food, yet it is un-
just in pointing out such a possibility to
make a statement which tends to foster a
mistaken idea, entirely too prevalent already,
about another food product, an idea that the
beekeeping industry and all its sponsors are
trying to eradicate. The beekeeping indus-

SCIENCE

539

try in this country is annually conserving
millions upon millions of pounds of one of
the finest food products existent that would
otherwise be absolutely lost. Yet many times
the amount saved is actually lost because this
industry is not developed to such an extent
as to take care of more than a small percent-
age of the possibilities. The complete devel-
opment of this industry can come only when
the people as a whole recognize honey as a
staple article of food rather than as a luxury.

M. C. Tanquary
CoLLEGE STATION, TEXAS

THE FLIGHT OF FIREFLIES AND THE FLASH-
ING IMPULSE

FirEFLigs are wonderfully interesting crea-

tures. There is something marvellous in the
physiology of a lowly living mechanism that
can transform chemical energy into luminous
energy with such a nearly perfect radiant effi-
ciency and with so little effort as do the fire-
flies. Theirs is a light without appreciable
heating effects, because in some manner the
energy of special chemical reactions taking
place within their tissues, is transformed al-
most entirely into luminous energy.
_ If one observes firefliest closely it will be
noted that their flight movements and flashing
under certain conditions bear some relation to
each other. During the day these insects seek
concealment in the low herbage and grass.
With the approach of evening they become ac-
tive and just after sundown may be seen to
arise in great numbers from the damp herbage,
flashing leisurely from time to time. If the
air is still and warm, it will be noted that as
the creatures arise very slowly, each flash is
attended by a sudden upward flight impulse
which may even carry them almost straight
upward several feet. Usually, however, they
are propelled upward in a more or less curved
path.

At this time the flight of the fireflies ap-
pears to be very weak, for they drift along
aimlessly, and appear almost unable to keep
clear of the herbage, often actually descending

1These observations apply to the behavior of
the species Photinus pyralis Linn.

{

540

as if to alight again. When it seems that they
must inevitably terminate their flight and
settle down upon the herbage, another flash
renews and quickens the flight impulse and
they arise precipitately, as if suddenly pro-
pelled upward by some energizing stimulus at-
tending the flash.

. This striking behavior may be observed al-
most any calm evening throughout the sum-
mer. It is particularly noticeable when the
insects are arising from the herbage, and are
just preparing to get fairly on the wing. What
is the actual significance of this luminosity to
the insects? In what manner does the flash
stimulate momentarily the powers of upward
flight? It would sometimes seem as if the
energy-transformation attending the flash,
actually aided them to get fairly on the wing,
possibly also sustaining their flight in some
manner.

H. A. ALuarp
WASHINGTON, D. C.

SPECIAL ARTICLES
FUNGICIDAL DUSTS FOR CONTROL OF SMUT

For more than a century efforts have been
made to secure a perfect method of treating
cereal seeds to destroy smut spores carried on
their surfaces. Many fungicides have been
tested and a number of standard formulas
have been put forth as efficient. More recent
investigations have demonstrated that none
of the formulas involving dipping seed in
solutions, fumigating with powerful gases or
dissolving spores by various / solvents, has
proven completely successful. Reagents of
sufficient strength to destroy the smut spores
have proven to be injurious to the germina-
tion of the seed.

It has been demonstrated recently by the
writers and by many other investigators, that
the commonly accepted standard smut fungi-
cal formulas involving the use of bluestone
and of formaldehyde, are frequently extremely
injurious to the germination of the seed and
the development of the seedlings. In arid
and semi-arid wheat areas, formaldehyde
frequently causes serious losses in seed

SCIENCE

[N. 8. Vou, LIT. No. 1353

planted in dry soil. Bluestone, the preferred
fungicide in such regions, causes serious losses
in germination and delayed growth of seed-
lings. Threshing operations in semi-arid
regions cause greater rupture to seed coats
than oceur in more humid regions, further
increasing seed injury. To avoid these losses,
it has been recommended that the bluestoned
seed be dipped, after a short drain, in a lime
solution to react with the copper and thus
check the penetration of the copper sulphate
in the seed germ as soon as it has destroyed
the bunt spores adhering to the surface of
seed. Unless the seed coats have been badly
ruptured this formula is very effective but it
has been found that the seed does not pass so
freely through the drill and, in cold damp
weather, the seed dries slowly due to the coat-
ing of lime and hence may cause fermenta-
tion or heating. To avoid these troubles ex-
periments with bluestone used as a dust were
undertaken. The partial success of flowers
of sulphur in preventing bunt in California
and the reported success with copper carbonate
by the Department of Agriculture of New
South Wales, gave encouragement for at-
tempting dust treatments.

Little Club wheat dusted with spores of
bunt (Tilletia tritici) at the rate of 1 part of
spores to 750 parts of seed by weight and
treated according to standard formulas, gave
the following results:

Treatment 3" ge
Fungicide Germi- e Z 3 3
Strength = OE | =
Ge S85 oe cade Sl éh sees — 99.0 | 12.8! 6.2
Formaldehyde ....... ..| 1- 98.0 0. 0.
Copper sulphate ... ..... 1-4 12.5 0. 0.
Copper sulphate ......... | 1-4
+ lime solution...... 1-8 80.0 1.7 4
Copper carbonate ........ | dust | 95.3 0. | 0.
Copper sulphate ......... | dust | 54.1| 0. | O.
Copper sulphate dust mixed)
with calcium carbonate!
WE TEES we ccs nivinss | dust | 98.3! 0. | 0
Copper sulphate and lime
dusted separately ...... | dust | 96.5| 0. | 0
Rod row plantings were made March 8,

1920, and later; which accounts for the rather

DeceMBER 3, 1920]

light smut attack. The seed was harvester
thrashed and showed considerable injury to
the seed coats permitting maximum bluestone
injury. The tests were replicated from 2 to
9 times and the average tabulated.

The results compiled from repeated tests
demonstrate the effectiveness of copper sul-
phate dust when mixed with equal parts of
calcium carbonate dust in the control of bunt
attack due to seed-borne spores. No damage
to seed germination occurred. Copper car-
bonate dust was equally effective. These
dusts, especially the copper sulphate adhered
tightly and completely covered all parts of
the seed wheat. The process of shaking the
wheat in dusting removed a large portion of
the bunt spores. Two ounces of the dusts
per bushel are considered ample. Copper sul-
phate and lime are available everywhere at
low cost. Further experimentation in repre-
sentative areas in the wheat belt of the United
States is desirable before the dust methods
are put into practise among farmers.

W. W. Mackir,
Frep N. Briccs

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND
U.8.D.A. CoOPERATING,
BERKELEY, CALIF.

THE AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL
SOCIETY

Tue twenty-fourth meeting of the society
was held on September 1 to 4, 1920, at Smith
College, Northampton and Mt. Holyoke Col-
lege, South Hadley, Massachusetts. The mem-
bers lived at the Gillett House, one of the
residence halls at Northampton. This was
the first occasion on which the society had met
regularly at a woman’s college, and it was
a double pleasure to visit two such institu-
tions, and especially to find in what flourish-
ing condition are their observatories and
astronomical departments.

There were five sessions for papers at
Smith, and two at Mt. Holyoke, where the
society went on the second day. A special
feature of the meeting was the conversazione
at which various exhibits were shown, in-

SCIENCE 541

cluding the latest work of the 100-inch tele
scope at Mt. Wilson.

Sir F. W. Dyson, Astronomer Royal, Green-
wich, was elected as an honorary member of
the society.

The officers for the ensuing year are:

President—Frank Schlesinger.

Vice-presidents—Walter S. Adams, Otto
Klotz.

Secretary—Joel Stebbins.

Treasurer—Benjamin Boss.

Councilors—S. I. Bailey, W. J. Hussey,
H. N. Russell, V. M. Slipher, Caroline E.
Furness and John A. Miller.

The representatives of the society on the
National Research Council will hereafter be
elected in the same manner as the officers of
the society. ‘he present members on the
Division of Physical Sciences are: W. W.
Campbell, H. N. Russell and Joel Stebbins;
and these three together with the president
of the society, Frank Schlesinger, and W. S.
Eichelberger form the executive committee
of the American Section of the International
Astronomical Union. The committee will or-
ganize the American preparation for the tri-
ennial meeting of the union in 1922.

About seventy members of the society were
in attendance at the meeting, and fifteen new
members were elected. The list of papers,
abstracts of which are printed in Popular
Astronomy, was as follows:

The spectra of some variable stars: W. S. ApAMs
and A, H. Joy.

Note on the spectrum of T Pyzidis: W. 8. Apams
and A. H, Joy.

Personality in the estimation of tenths: SEBASTIAN
ALBRECHT.

Observations of variable stars at the McCormick
Observatory: HaroLp L. ALDEN.

Parallax determinations of bright stars: HARoLp
L. ALDEN and S, A. MITCHELL,

Variable stars in Messier 22: 8. I. BAILEY.

Concerning results of observed gravitational light
deflections: Louis A. BAUER.

Ghosts and oculars: Louis BELL.

On telegraphing the position of a celestial object:
ERNEST CLARE BOWER.

Notes on the classification of long period variables:
LEON CAMPBELL.

542

Notes on changes in the spectrum of » Carine:
ANNIE J. CANNON.

A probable factor in the widening and increase in
wave-lengths of the spectrum lines near the limb
of the sun: Ratpu E. DeLury.

The constancy of the solar wave-lengths and the
possibility of determining the solar distance
therefrom: RALPH E. DeLury and H. R. KINGs-
TON.

Notes on the solar rotation: RaLpH E. DeLury and
JOHN L. O’ConNoR.

Map of Mars in 1920 and method of producing it
from drawings: A, E. Doua.ass.

A photometric study of Y Camelopardalis: R. 8.
DuGAN.

The photometric fields of three Yerkes telescopes:
ALICE H. FARNSWORTH.

Circulation of calcium flocculia about sun-spots:
Puiuip Fox.

Note on Nova Cygni No. 3: Evwin B. Frost.

Some recent photographs taken with the 100-inch
Hooker telescope: GEorGE E, HALE.

The Mount Wilson photographic map of the sun-
spot spectrum: GEorGE E. HALE and FERDINAND
ELLERMAN.

The orbit of the spectroscopic binary H. R. 6385:
W. E. HARPER.

The light-curve of Eros in 1914: A correction to
the results previously published: MARGARET Har-
Woop.

A curious effect of superposition of two photo-
graphic plates: F. HENROTEAU.

A graphical construction for obtaining the period
of a phenomenon: F, HENROTEAU.

Nova Cygni No. 3. Preliminary results: F. HEn-
ROTEAU and J. P. HENDERSON.

The spectroscopic binary v Eridani: F. HENROTEAU
and J. P. HENDERSON.

New lines in the spectrum of oxygen: C. C. Krgss.

Velocity-curves for spectroscopic binaries: EDWARD
S. KING.

Photometry of eclipsed moon: Epwarp 8. KING.

The eclipsing binaries uw Scorpii and V Puppis:
ANTONIA C, Maury.

Parallax results obtained at the Yerkes Observa-
tory: Ottiver J. Lez and GEORGE VAN BIEs-
BROECK.

Photographic zenith tube at the U. 8S. Naval Ob-
servatory, 1915.9-1920.0: F. B. LitTe.u.

The systematic errors of stellar parallazes deter-
mined by photography at the Leander McCor-
mick Observatory: 8, A. MITCHELL.

Absorption of the photographic rays by the at-
mospheric water content: GEORGE HENRY PETERS.

SCIENCE

[N. 8. Vou. LIT. No. 1353

The spectroscopic orbits and absolute dimensions
of the eclipsing variables TX Herculis and Y
Cygni: J. 8. PLAsKert,

When an eclipse prevented a war; WiLuiam F,
RIGGE,

Direct micrometrical observations of the sun.
Exact formulas: E. D, Roz, Jr,

The mensurational properties of the photographic
plate: FRANK E, Ross.

A solution of R minus D observations: ArTHuR J.
Roy.

The radial velocities of ten Oe5 stars: W. Cari
RvuFwvs.

On the probable diameters of the stars: HENRY
Norris RUSSELL.

Radiation pressure and celestial motions: HENry
Norris RUSSELL,

The astronomical aspects of aether theory versus
relativity: L, SILBERSTEIN.

Progress in photo-electric photometry, with a new
light-curve of Algol: JoEL STEBBINS.

The investigation of plate errors in photographic
photography: HARLAN TRUE STETSON.

Arlington time signals: R. MELDRUM STEWART.

Temperature compensation of chronometers: R.
MELDRUM STEWART.

Canadian transcontinental longitudes:
DRUM STEWART.

Notes on the variables 9.1914 and RT Vulpecule:
S. D. TOWNLEY.

A new method of observing the position of the
centre of the sun: R. W. WILLSON.

The orbits of Carine, Doradus, and Sagittarii:
RALPH E. WILSON and C. M, HuFFeEr.

The orbit of the spectroscopic binary H. R. 8800:
REYNOLD K, Young.

The stationary calcium lines in early type stars:
REYNOLD K. YOuNG. JOEL STEBBINS,

Secretary

SCIENCE

A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science

Published every Friday by

THE SCIENCE PRESS

LANCASTER, PA. GARRISON, N. Y.
NEW YORK, N. Y.

Entered in the post-office at Lancaster, Pa., as second class matter

R. MEL-